ScuzzBlog: Diaries February 2019
Entry 3rd February 2019: Post 01: MS - DOS or Don't
MS - DOS or Don't
I managed somehow to completely circumvent DOS. I moved from the
Spectrum to CP/M on the Amstrad and then to the Amiga. By the time
I hit Windows proper I was at Win95 so other than having to configure
the odd DOS based game or program I was able to avoid the thing.
I have to say I was never a fan of DOS. I really never saw the
point of it all. I certainly enjoyed CP/M cus it always spoke in
a language I could understand. I preferred simple BASIC over any
DOS based application.
My first experience of DOS and Windows was in 1995 when I worked
in an office that ran Windows for Workgroups. By this time I was
deep into the Amiga and loving it. I seriously hated Windows. All
the fun and games we had just trying to get programs to function
within the Windows environment was so painful. Each aspect of the
program or more importantly hardware needed the DOS aspects of its
running processes adapted and configured. I recall playing Duke
Nukem on the PC and having to go into DOS to configure the graphics
and the sound. And it wasn't easy. It was always like that.
Workgroups and Win3.1 was really just a variation on a DOpus theme.
I generally used XTreeGold on the PC which is basically a poor man's
DOpus.
So why am I doing this feature. Well, as a follow up to CP/M and
Digital Research I am never quite sure how to store my Dr DOS with the
PC stuff or the more retro Amstrad software. It feels it should be
out of the MS DOS zone. I wasn't intentionally creating a DOS feature
it is just that I dragged out all these big boxes of manuals and
disks for DOS, it was just easier to photograph the stuff. I do have
earlier versions of DOS but I couldn't be bothered searching for
them.
To summarise the DOS environment as created by MS, it really is dull
as soup. For those interested I would suggest Googling, cus it was
enough for me just to take the photographs. My interest in Win3.1
begins and ends with the 5.25" disk drive. I basically set up the
IBM so that I could fit the 5.25" drive and access disks for the
1060 on the Amiga. I don't mind Windows.. I have spent so much time
on Windows based machines it would be foolish for me to suggest
otherwise, However, DOS is seriously dreary in my view, as is the
applications that ran from it. I know that is a very shallow view,
but let me repeat ... my path went Sinclair BASIC to Mallard BASIC
and CP/M Plus and the Locomotive suite of software to the Amiga. I
was blessed with the joys of not having to trouble myself with DOS.
I did spend a few years in an office that ran Macs but then I
never have treated Apple computers with any respect given that they
were always more about the character using them than the product
itself. And each time I have been force fed Macs its been by the
most arrogant and annoying of employers. Blah , blah, blah .. Boring.
Anyway not the subject of this thread.
One final point and that is IBM's own DOS sofware, Not MS... but IBM.
Here are some pictures which you can view, or not. Just part of the
general story of the computer, though this was designed for dull
folk in grey suits. That's my take on matters. Never used it.
MS - DOS or Don't
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